Water Syria

Turkey and Syria considered using WATER AS A WEAPON against Iraq in the war but decided against it, according to a senior Arab official in Cairo. A prewar agreement among Turkey, Iraq and Syria stipulates that Turkey must release a set amount of water into the Euphrates River below the Euphrates Dam. The official said the Syrians have made it clear that "they would suffer as much as the Iraqis if Turkey restricted the flow."

Turkey and Syria considered using WATER AS A WEAPON against Iraq in the war but decided against it, according to a senior Arab official in Cairo. A prewar agreement among Turkey, Iraq and Syria stipulates that Turkey must release a set amount of water into the Euphrates River below the Euphrates Dam. The official said the Syrians have made it clear that "they would suffer as much as the Iraqis if Turkey restricted the flow."

Syria, aided by the Soviet Union, appears to be engaged in a major project to divert the waters of the Yarmuk River, threatening Jordan's main farming area, Israeli Agriculture Minister Arye Nehemkin said. "If reports . . . are correct, the project poses a grave threat to Jordan because all the agriculture on the Jordanian side of the Jordan Valley is based on water from the Yarmuk," a tributary of the Jordan River, he said on state radio.

Syria, aided by the Soviet Union, appears to be engaged in a major project to divert the waters of the Yarmuk River, threatening Jordan's main farming area, Israeli Agriculture Minister Arye Nehemkin said. "If reports . . . are correct, the project poses a grave threat to Jordan because all the agriculture on the Jordanian side of the Jordan Valley is based on water from the Yarmuk," a tributary of the Jordan River, he said on state radio.

The United Nations launched a $5.1-billion humanitarian appeal Friday, its largest-ever aid request, for millions of Syrians who have suffered as a result of the conflict that began in 2011. The appeal to donor nations on behalf of Syrians inside and outside the country came as Syrian government forces and its allies seized a strategic town on the Lebanese border and prospects further dimmed for a negotiated settlement. More than 1.6 million Syrians have fled to neighboring countries and 4.25 million have been internally displaced since the uprising began in March 2011.

Turkish engineers Saturday halted the flow of the Euphrates, one of the world's great rivers, sending a flood of jitters through downstream, drought-stricken Syria and Iraq. The water will be diverted for one month into the reservoir behind Turkey's giant new Ataturk Dam, linchpin of a network of hydroelectric and irrigation projects along the upper reaches of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers in eastern Anatolia.

BEIRUT -- Almost two years of violence have devastated Syria's once-extensive healthcare system and left many Syrians unable to access even basic services, representatives of the international aid group Doctors Without Borders said Thursday. “The situation for Syrian civilians inside Syria is catastrophic,” Christopher Stokes, the group's general director, told reporters in a conference call. “The aid system is way too limited, and the health system inside Syria has collapsed.” The conclusions are the latest dire assessment of the fast-deteriorating humanitarian situation inside Syria.

The Turkish hydraulic engineer swept his hand toward the Middle East's storied Fertile Crescent and then to the brown waters flowing sluggishly toward it, the first fruit of Turkey's grand project to harness the headwaters of the mighty Tigris-Euphrates river basin. "Just think," Lutfi Solakoglu proudly told the latest group of dignitaries to visit the site since the sluice gates opened April 11, sending a stream of water down an irrigation canal to the fields beyond.

Deeply frustrated by the spreading violence of Kurdish separatists, Turkey warned neighboring Syria, Iran, Iraq and Armenia on Thursday that it might retaliate if they do not clamp down on alleged guerrilla activity on their territory. "It is time for our neighbors to show they are together with us . . . to see who is our friend. There is no in-between," said Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Ciller. She added that if Turkey's neighbors do not cooperate, "we will do what we have to do."

Curiously, it was not only the far right wing in Israel that last week called for suspension of Mideast peace talks. Shimon Peres, the leader of the relatively dovish Labor party and a longtime advocate of such negotiations did too. With early elections on tap after two rightist parties pulled out from Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir's ruling coalition, Peres argued that "what passes for negotiations should be stopped since the whole thing is just a fashion show."